WinZip About To Get More Annoying
from the opening-itself-up-to-the-competition dept
A few years ago, we noted how the zip battles were progressing -- as the need for compression software seemed to be dwindling (huge hard drives and broadband made compressed files less important). Still, WinZip remains one of the most popular utilities, in part because it was shareware/nagware that never really forced you to pay. However, it sounds like that's about to change as some turnaround experts have bought out the company behind WinZip and will immediately begin trying to get more people to pay by being a bit more strict in the way they set up the shareware. Of course, given that there's plenty of competition in the zipping market, and the decreased need for zipping utilities, it seems like all this will really do is drive more people to alternatives -- including not zipping up files at all.
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7zip or Winrar
7zip for a free alternative:
http://www.7-zip.org/
Winrar for a nagware alternative:
http://www.rarlab.com/
Haven't used Winzip in more than 7 years now.
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Windows XP
Most windows users are using windows XP now I think. Which has zip support built in. So unless you have special requirements for zipping using an external utility seems a bit odd.
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Re: Windows XP
Damn skippy! There's no reason to use WinZip any more. These days, if you're going to install a third-party utility, the chief requirement is the total number of formats it supports. WinZip never did very well in this category. They've added a few, but their competition always stays ahead.
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Re: Windows XP
Agreed. I never understood these people. At work, or for friends, people want Winzip. No matter how much I explain to them that XP has Zip functionality built-in I always hear, "Yeah, but I want to download WinZip anyway." Why?
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info-zip
Another free zip/unizp: http://www.info-zip.org/
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